Read – Page 767 – What Cathy Read Next…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was the always tough Favourite Books of 2020.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I took a look at how I got on with My 2020 Reading Challenges.

Friday – I shared the books I might read for the What’s In A Name 2021 reading challenge.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month and the year means it’s time for #6Degrees of Separation. This month’s starting book was Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (audiobook)

Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens – until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened in front of her own eyes – or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

The Diplomat’s Wife by Michael Ridpath (advance review copy, courtesy of Corvus and Reader’s First)

1936: Devastated by the death of her beloved brother Hugh, Emma seeks to keep his memory alive by wholeheartedly embracing his dreams of a communist revolution. But when she marries an ambitious diplomat, she must leave her ideals behind and live within the confines of embassy life in Paris and Nazi Berlin. Then one of Hugh’s old comrades reappears, asking her to report on her philandering husband, and her loyalties are torn.

1979: Emma’s grandson, Phil, dreams of a gap-year tour of Cold War Europe, but is nowhere near being able to fund it. So when his beloved grandmother determines to make one last trip to the places she lived as a young diplomatic wife, and to try to solve a mystery that has haunted her since the war, he jumps at the chance to accompany her. But their journey takes them to darker, more dangerous places than either of them could ever have imagined…

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

When Are You Reading? 2021 Sign-Up
Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated 2021 Releases
Waiting on Wednesday
Book Review: The Push by Ashley Audrain
Book Review: Elmet by Fiona Mozley
Blog Tour/Book Review: Last Flight to Stalingrad by Graham Hurley
Blog Tour/Book Review: Children’s Fate by Carolyn Hughes

It’s the first Saturday of the month – and of a New Year – which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees

This month’s starting book is the award-winning Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell which depicts the impact of a bereavement on the Shakespeare family.

Imperfect Alchemist by Naomi Miller is a fictionalised account of the life of Mary Sidney whose literary circle included William Shakespeare, as well as other playwrights and poets of the period.

Staying with the world of the theatre Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor features the relationship – on and off stage – between Bram Stoker and actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry.

Ellen Terry made her American debut in 1883 playing Queen Henrietta opposite Sir Henry Irving in the play Charles I. In The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn, published on 7th January, the character of Nat Davy is inspired by the life of Jeffrey Hudson who served as court dwarf to Queen Henrietta. In the book, Nat is brought to court by the wily Duke of Buckingham.

Buckingham also appears in The Honey and the Sting by E.C. Fremantle in which he pursues three sisters in an effort to gain custody of his illegitimate son.

The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis also features three sisters, in this case the Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne. In the author’s imagination, before they found fame as writers, the sisters were lady ‘detectors’ investigating crimes in and around their native Yorkshire.

Another character who combines her usual occupation with the role of detective is Hungarian cleaner Lena Szarka in A Messy Affair by Elisabeth Mundy, the third in the author’s mystery series.

This month’s chain has taken me from Shakespearean times, including a brush with royalty, to present day London via the Yorkshire moors. Where did your chain take you?